What did the ancient Chinese need from trade

China is a big country.
Later in it’s history it had everything it needed inside the borders and the government would only accept silver or gold from European traders. But before it became such a large nation the thing they mainly imported was Horses, they bought them from the Altaic peoples living on the steppes north of China. It was horses that allowed to State of Qin to conquer the rest of China and unite it.